Saturday 6th October 2018

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Back in Milton Keynes by 11.30 this morning and would have been home before 12.30 had I not had to go to the supermarket. My parents were coming to celebrate my son’s first birthday and visit our house for the first time and so we needed to prepare a feast.

It was my sons birthday yesterday (though we’re celebrating tomorrow), but luckily he didn’t understand anything that was happening, so it didn’t matter that I’d been off entertaining 400 Mancunians.

But the ease of travel cemented my resolve to look at doing some of the podcasts on the road next year. Luckily I had sold most of the heavy books that I’d taken with me and it was much easier to carry my suitcase. And the trains were easy and I’d got cheap first class tickets and had been able to more than make up for the extra cost by eating anddrinking as much as I could and not having to pay for anything except my hotel in Manchester (I even took a few bottles of water home - make the system work for you).

I went to the Milton Keynes Waitrose, a place where by rights I should never have been, but for my clever life hack of cutting out the need to go into London to get to Manchester (an even cleverer life hack is just to drive to Manchester). What would a Milton Keynes Waitrose be like? Turns out it’s the same as the other ones. But I am glad I got a chance to see.

I had thought to put my own bags for life in the car, but one of them had a big hole in it, so I asked for a replacement (as is my right for having paid 10p for it and thus getting a bag FOR LIFE). The cashier said, “Sorry, you can only exchange Waitrose bags.”

Yeah, sure baby, I might look like a man who shops in Tescos. And it is true that I do. But I sometimes go to Waitrose too. I pointed out that the bag said “Waitrose” on it and she said, “Oh it must be an old design.”

“Yes,” I said, “because I make my bags for life last.”

I could see she was impressed with my thrift (I mean it’s not even really thrift as I have lifetime replacements regardless of how many times I use a bag, but that makes me a maverick) and confused about why I was therefore shopping in Waitrose. But that’s me to a tee. Unpredictable.

But good to see the Aged Ps - the oldest living Herring and the youngest together again. 81 years separating them.

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